Manmohan Singh was the quintessential scholar

MOST people know of Dr Manmohan Singh as a civil servant, as a politician, and as a statesman. Very few know of him as a student and as a teacher. That is what I would like to talk about today. And I believe that this is the perfect place to do so. After all, Panjab University is where he studied and where he taught. He was deeply indebted to this university for all that he achieved.

Dr Manmohan Singh’s journey as a scholar took him from a village school in Gah to Chakwal, Peshawar, Amritsar, Hoshiarpur, Chandigarh and Delhi, as well as to Cambridge and to Oxford. But this journey did not end there. In fact, Dr Singh would remain a scholar for the rest of his life.

The evidence for that is plenty. Books were Dr Singh’s proudest possessions. He read extensively and took meticulous notes, which he then preserved for decades. At work, he consulted experts and peers alike. He was open to critique and to correction. He analysed all aspects in minute detail before he took a decision.

Along the way, Dr Singh took it upon himself to mentor his younger colleagues. And he reached out to the public at large through the vast number of articles that he wrote, interviews that he gave and the speeches that he delivered. This was a means to promote ideas — not a means to promote himself.

Over the last 40 years, public speaking was an important way for Dr Singh to engage with people from all walks of life across the country. He used these occasions to discuss complex social, economic and environmental problems; and to inspire public support for solutions. He was often invited to speak at schools, colleges and universities. That was where he was completely at home — among fellow-students and fellow-teachers.

Dr Singh spoke to thousands of students and teachers. Much of what he said was drawn from his personal experience. A sample can be seen in excerpts from his speech at the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, in 1981; the Punjabi University, Patiala, in 1991; the Bharathiar University, Coimbatore, in 1996; the University of Alberta, Edmonton, in 1997; the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, in 2010; and the Presidency University, Kolkata, in 2017.

Manmohan was a child of the Partition. He had witnessed the horrors of communal riots that tore communities apart. He lost his grandfather and other close relatives in the senseless violence. His family was forced to migrate — taking nothing along, leaving everything behind. After many years of hardship, it managed to recover from the financial shock. But, like thousands of affected families, it would not recover from the personal trauma.

At a time when Punjab was in deep turmoil, these were Dr Singh’s words at the Punjabi University, Patiala, in 1991: “I can well understand the feelings of anger and frustration of a section of Sikh youth. The entire Indian nation has a responsibility to end this feeling of alienation. I am convinced that India’s democratic polity can satisfy all the legitimate aspirations of the Sikh community, as well as of other minorities."

Sadly, violence would erupt in other parts of the country, time and time again. Dr Singh would make it a point to reach out to students and teachers in Assam, Kashmir and Manipur, just as he did in Punjab.

Dr Singh would remind students that their education began in the classroom, but it did not end there. He said that they must be committed to the pursuit of excellence; that they must cultivate an inquiring mind; and that they must be receptive to change. He would also speak about their role in society: “Our student community is well known for its high sense of idealism. The time has come when our academic communities should provide a lead to the rest of the nation by recapturing and reviving that spirit of adventure and idealism which inspired our freedom struggle."

On a similar note, Dr Singh reminded students of their duty to the nation: “You must in some manner, however small it might be, give back to the society and the people who have nurtured you."

Dr Singh believed that teaching was the most noble of all professions. In fact, he once said that teachers were a nation’s most precious resource. He would often speak about the teachers who had played a special part in his life. As to the role of a teacher, Dr Singh believed this must go beyond simply imparting knowledge.

This was perhaps Dr Singh’s most eloquent account of his love for teaching — and why he left it: “It is not enough to write learned papers about the folly of politicians; it is necessary to take wisdom into the corridors of power. That is how I stepped into the complex sport that is called public administration. In any case, ignorance is so pervasive in public affairs that even a modicum of knowledge can make a decisive difference."

In 2017, Dr Manmohan Singh gave his most reflective speech on the pursuit of knowledge. He had spent several days thinking over what he wanted to say. And what he said eight years ago is even more relevant today: “My interest in economics deepened through the years that I spent at Panjab University, followed by the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford. At each stage, I was fortunate to obtain scholarships that allowed me the opportunity to study at these fine institutions. I believe that every university must give its students the freedom to pursue knowledge — even where that knowledge may be at odds with established intellectual and social traditions. We must guard this freedom zealously. Regrettably, independent thinking and free expression at Indian universities are under threat today. It is only by constructive engagement with dissent that we can truly build a stronger, more cohesive, self-sustaining democracy."

Dr Manmohan Singh led a very adventurous life as a teacher, a civil servant, a politician, and a statesman. He had never actually solicited any job, any position, or even any role. Highly prized opportunities were simply offered to him instead. Some people might see this as purely accidental. But surely there are more convincing reasons for his remarkable achievements. One such reason was furnished by Dr Manmohan Singh himself: “I was born to a family of modest means. In my childhood I had to walk a long distance to go to school. I read under the dim light of a kerosene lamp. I am what I am today because of education. I want every Indian child, girl and boy, to be so touched by the light of education. I want every Indian to dream of a better future and live that dream."

— Excerpts from a lecture delivered in PU on April 25 by the author who is Singh’s daughter

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